Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 65

pale fire” (Nabokov 15). This explores Shade’s morality because as he is finish-
ing his poem he is destroying his past drafts, destroying the characters he had
once written. In a sense, Shade dies because he is no longer writing. The reason
Shade exploring his morality and his different sides will not be receiving the tro-
phy is because it seemed to need more experience. Another team that put up a
good fight but did not win is the team of three pairs. The number three is very
prevalent in Pale Fire. John Shade’s poem is “nine hundred and ninety-nine
lines” (13). Three multiplied by three is nine. Pairs and reflections are also very
prevalent. Zembla is known as the land of reflections and also the land of crys-
tals. Crystals cause reflections. Hazel “twisted words: pot, top” (45). These are
reflections of each other. The team of three pairs consists of John Shade and
Kinbote, John Shade and Odon, and Sybil Shade and Disa. John Shade and
Kinbote are a pair because they share the same birthday with only a “small dif-
ference of sixteen years” (161). This makes John Shade being an older version of
Kinebote possible. Shade and Kinbote are the same person, and Kinbote is
Shade before he matured and grew up. This relates to Shade exploring the dif-
ferent stages of his life because he is reminiscing on past years of his life. Anoth-
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